Download File - AP Psychology

Top AP Psychology Terms
Attribution Theory – tendency to give explanations for someone’s behavior, often by crediting situation
or person’s disposition
Fundamental Attribution Theory – tendency to overestimate the impact of person’s disposition and
underestimate impact of situation
Foot-in-the-Door Phenomenon – tendency to apply w/ larger requests after responding to a smaller
request
Zimbardo – Stanford Prison Experiment/Lucifer Effect – Role Playing: People take on the role of what
they feel are proper for the situation
Cognitive Dissonance – the mental stress (discomfort) experienced by a person who simultaneously
holds two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas, or value.
Asch – conformity – tendency to go along with the views and actions of others, even if you know they
are wrong – line test
Milgram – obedience – people tend to obey authority figures; 60% of participants thought they
delivered the max possible level of shock
Social Facilitation – improved performance in presence of others; easy tasks get easier as hard tasks get
harder
Normative social influence - a type of social influence leading to conformity or "the influence of other
people that leads us to conform in order to be liked and accepted by them".
Social Loafing – in the presence of others, people tend to do less, partly because they believe others will
do it
Deindividualization – loss of self-awareness and self-restraint, typically in a sense of anomie (mob
situation)
Group Polarization – if a group is like-minded, discussion strengthens prevailing options and attitudes
Groupthink – a mode of thinking that occurs when the desire for harmony in a decision-making group
overrides realistic appraisal of alternatives
Just-World Phenomenon – tendency of people to believe that the world is just and people get what
they deserve and deserve what they get
Social Traps – situation in which the confliction parties, by each rationally pursuing their self-interests,
become caught in mutually destructive behavior.
In-group – people with whom one shares a common identity with
Out-group – those perceived as different from themselves
Hindsight Bias – tendency to believe, after learning an outcome, that we would have predicted it
beforehand and may contribute to blaming the victim and forming prejudices against him/her
Prejudice – unjustifiable attitude towards a group and its members
Mere exposure effect – the mere exposure to a stimulus will increase the liking of it
Altruism – unselfish regard for the welfare to others
Self-fulfilling prophecy - when a person unknowingly causes a prediction to come true, due to the
simple fact that he or she expects it to come true.
Bystander effect – tendency for any given bystander to be less likely to give aid if other bystanders are
present
Reciprocity Norms – the expectation that we should return help, not harm to those who have helped us
Biological – explore the links between brain and mind
Cognitive – study how we perceive, thinks, and solve problems
Humanistic – study that says that humans are basically good and possess a free-will
Behavioral – study that says all behavior is observable and measurable
Psychoanalytic – study of the unconscious, includes childhood and aggression issues
Sociocultural – study of how cultural and political experiences affect our life
Evolutionary – study of the evolutionary of humans over time (from apes)
Developmental – study of our changing abilities from womb to tomb
Wilhelm Wundt – father of psychology
Introspection – looking inward at one’s own mental processes
Structuralism – analyze sensations, images, and feelings into their most basic elements
William James – the brain and mind are constantly changing
Functionalism – underlying causes and practical consequences of certain behaviors and mental
strategies – “steam of consciousness”
John Locke – Tabula Rosa – mind is a blank slate written on by experiences
Sigmund Freud – founder of psychoanalysis
Psychoanalytic Theory – all behavior is meaningful and driven by unconscious forces
Applied Research – aims to solve practical problems
Basic Research – pure science that aims to increase the scientific knowledge base
Hypothesis – is a testable prediction, often induced by a thy, to enable us to accept, reject, or revise the
thy (educational guess)
Independent Variable –a factor, manipulated by the experimenter, and whose effect is studies
Dependent Variable – a factor that may change in response to the IV
Theory – is an explanation that integrates principles, organizes, and predicts behavior or event
Operational definition – a clear statement of what one is looking for in an experiment
Validity – it measure what you want it to be measured
Reliability – it is replicable and is consistent
Sampling – process by which participants are selected
Population – the amount of participants that can be selected for the sample
Representative sample – take the results from a smaller group and apply that to a larger group of
people
Random sample/selection – everyone has an equal chance of being selected for the experiment
because the participants are chosen at random
Random Assignment - refers to the use of chance procedures in psychology experiments to ensure that
each participant has the same opportunity to be assigned to either the control group or the
experimental group
Control – group that does not take part in the critical part of the experimentation process, used as a
comparison group
Experimenter bias – the experimenter, either unconsciously or consciously, affects the outcome of the
experiment
Single-blind procedure – the subjects do not know to what group they belong
Double-blind procedure – neither the experimenter nor the subject knows to what group the subjects
are in
Hawthorne effect – if you know you’re being studied, you will act differently than you normally/typically
would
Placebo – sugar pill – something administered that has no real effect on the person other than what
they think mentally
Positive correlation – as one goes up, the other goes up
Negative correlation – as one goes up, the other goes down
Survey – a technique for ascertaining the self-reported attitudes, opinions, or behavior of people in a
questionnaire, or similar way of ascertaining information
Naturalistic observation – observing and recording behavior in the wild/natural environment
Case study – get a full, detailed picture of one participant or a small group of participants
Mean – average of the scores – add them up and divide by total number of scores
Median – middle score – when all scores are put numerically in order, the middle score
Mode – the most frequently occurring score in the distribution
Range – the lowest score subtracted from the higher score
Standard Deviation – the average distance of scores around the mean
Z-score – a type of standard score that tells us how many standard deviation units a given score is above
or below the mean for that group
Myelin Sheath – a fatty covering around the axon of some neurons that speeds the neural impulse
Axon – wire-like structure ending in the terminal that extends from the cell body
Neurons – a nerve cell; the basic building block of the nervous system
Sensory Neurons (afferent) – neurons that carry incoming information from the sense receptors (nose,
ears, hands) to the central nervous system
Interneuron – central nervous system neurons that internally communicate and intervene between the
sensory inputs and the motor outputs
Motor Neurons (efferent) – neurons that carry incoming information from the central nervous system
to the muscles and glands
Neurotransmitters – chemical contained in terminal buttons that enable neurons to communicate; they
fit into the receptor site of neurons like a key fits into a lock
Agonist (excitatory) – excite, by causing neurotransmitters to hit site multiple times
Antagonists (inhibitory) – inhibits, by blocking neurotransmitters
Central Nervous System (CNS) – the brain and spinal cord
Peripheral Nervous System (PNS) – sensory and motor neurons that connect the CNS to the rest of the
body
Somatic NS – the division of the PNS that controls the body’s skeletal muscles
Autonomic NS – the part of the PNS that controls the glands and muscles of the internal organs, like the
heart
Sympathetic NS – arouses the body
Parasympathetic NS – calms the body
Pituitary gland – the endocrine system’s most influential gland, under the influence of the
hypothalamus, this regulates growth and controls other endocrine glands
EEG – an amplified recording of waves of electrical activity that sweep across the brain’s surface, these
waves are measured by electrodes placed on the skull
PET – a visual display of brain activity that detects where a radioactive form of glucose goes while the
brain performs a certain task
MRI – a technique that uses magnetic fields and radio waves to produce a computer generated image
that distinguishes between the types of soft tissue in the brain
Medulla – connected to the base of the brain stem, controls our blood pressure, heart rate, and
breathing
Reticular Formation – screens incoming info, and filters out irrelevant info, controls arousal and
attention
Thalamus – the brains sensory switchboard
Pons – above the medulla, makes chemicals involved w/ sleep & facial expressions
Cerebellum – the little brain attached to the rear of the brain stem, controls coordination, fire muscles
movements and balance
Limbic System – associated with emotions like aggression and fear and drives such as hunger and thirst
and sex (Hippocampus, Hypothalamus, and Amygdala)
Amygdala – part of the limbic system that is involved in emotions, aggression, and fear
Hypothalamus – controls the metabolic functions of body temp, sex arousal, hunger, thirst,
motivation/emotions, and the endocrine system. the 4 f’s
Hippocampus – part of the limbic system involved in learning and memory
Temporal Lobe – at side of brain above ears involved in memory, perception, hearing
Occipital Lobe – lower back part of brain involved with processing visual info. vision
Peripheral Lobe – top of brain, discriminates between textures and shapes
Frontal Lobe – located under forehead, involved with complex cognitive functions
William Penfield – studied the effects of stimulation on the motor cortex
Phineas Gage – first lobotomy after a rod goes through his head; gives psych info on part of brain
involved w/ emotions and reasoning
Broca’s Area – directs muscle movements involved with speech
Wernicke’s Area – involved in language comprehension
Plasticity – brain’s ability to modify itself after some kind of injury/illness
Split Brain – corpus callosum cut, not allowing info to travel to other side of brain
Corpus Callosum – responsible for higher thinking function, connects two sides of brain
Left Hemisphere– logical, sequential tasks, solving math problems, verbal . logical
Right Hemisphere – facial recognition, puzzle solver, emotional, artistic . creative
Sensory Cortex – receives info from skin surface and sense organs
Motor Cortex – controls voluntary movements, on opposite side of body
Hindbrain – lower brain, located at rear base of skull, responsible for reflexive or automatic behaviors
Forebrain – largest part of brain that controls what we think of as thoughts and reasons
Midbrain – located above Pons, integrates and relay sensory info to main part of brain
Depolarization – this occurs when positive ions enter the neuron, making it susceptible to fire an action
potential
Refractory Period – after a neuron has fired an action potential, it pauses for a short period to recharge,
until it will fire again
Threshold – the level of stimulation required to trigger a neural impulse
Action Potential – a neural impulse that travels down the axon. domino effect
All-or-none – when the depolarized current exceeds the threshold of a neuron, it will fire unless it’s
below, causing is not to fire
Reuptake – neurotransmitters that can’t find an area across the synapse to attach will be reabsorbed by
the sending neuron
Acetylcholine – activates motor neurons and skeletal muscles, too little = Alzheimer’s
Dopamine – contributes to voluntary movements and pleasurable emotions, lack of it causes Parkinson’s
as too much causes schizophrenia
Endorphins – natural pain killers created by brain, promotes pain relief, like morphine
Serotonin – involved in mood, regulation of sleep, appetite, and body temperature, to little leads to
depression as too much contributes to OCD and mania
Norepinephrine – affects memory, learning, and contributes to changes in mood, undersupply leads to
depression
Top-down Processing – info processed guided by higher level mental processes, recognizing face &
T/-\E C/-\T (I read ‘the cat’, no thinking)
Bottom-up Processing – analysis of the stimulus begins w/ the sense receptor and work up to brain,
/-\ (I see something, oh it’s an A)
Just Noticeable Difference – minimum difference between two stimuli required for detection 50 % of
the time
Olfaction - smelling
Cocktail Party Phenomenon – focus of attention on selected aspects of the environment and block out
the rest
Retinal Disparity – comparing the information from each eyeball, the greater difference between the
two images means they are closer
Transduction – the conversation of one form of energy into another, translates the incoming stimuli into
a neural signal
Parallel Processing – the processing of several aspects of a problem, simultaneously
Young-Helmholtz Theory – we have three types of cones in the retina: red, blue, green; we get other
colors by mixing and lightening/darkening colors
Opponent Process Theory – the sensory receptors arranged in the retina come in pairs: red/green,
yellow/blue, and black/white
Afterimage – the firing of the cones used after viewing something steadily
Visual Cliff – process to tell if a baby has a sense of depth Hearing
Hearing
 Intensity – loudness, measured in decibels
 Frequency - the pitch, a tone’s highness/lowness
 Outer ear – sound waves collected
o Source .Ear canal . Eardrum (thin membrane that vibrates when hit)
 Middle ear – transmits and amplifies the vibration
o Hammer (malleus). Anvil (incus) . Stirrup (stapes) . Oval window
 Inner ear – change to neural impulse
o Cochlea (snail shaped membrane filled w/ fluid that changes vibration to an electric symbol)
. Auditory Nerve. Brain
Sensory Deprivation – if one sense is deprived, another will become stronger, i.e. . blind people have
very good hearing
Sensory Adaption – after a while of constant stimulation, will stop detecting sense, i.e. watch or
bandage
Vestibular sense – sense of body position and movement, balance
Perceptual Set – a mental predisposition to see one thing rather than another
Gestalt – an organized whole, put all individual pieces together to get big picture
o Proximity – objects that are close together are more likely to be perceived as belonging in
the same group
o Similarity – objects that are similar in appearance are more likely to be perceived “
o Continuity – Objects that form a continuous form are more likely to be perceived “
o Closure – Objects that make up recognizable image r more likely to be perceived “
o Constancy – objects with similar size, shape and brightness are considered a set
Habituation - psychological learning process wherein there is a decrease in response to a stimulus after
being repeatedly exposed to it. This concept states that an animal or a human may learn to ignore a
stimulus because of repeated exposure to it.
Pavlov – founder of classical conditioning while trying to study digestive system
Classical Conditioning – learning in which an organism comes to associate stimuli
 NS – neutral stimuli – stimuli that does not trigger a response
 UCS – unconditioned stimuli – stimuli that automatically triggers a response
 UCR – unconditioned response – an unlearned, natural response to the UCS
 CS – conditioned stimuli – after association with the UCS, elicits a certain response
 CR – conditioned response – the learned response to a previously neutral response
Metacognition – gain ability to think about the way you think . self-evaluation
Acquisition – initial stage of CC, in which the association between the NS and UCS takes place, only lasts
about ½ a second
Generalization – tendency to respond to similar stimuli in the same way
Discrimination – the learned ability to distinguish between the CS and other stimuli
Spontaneous Recovery – the reappearing of the CR to the CS
Extinction – the fading of the CR to the CS
John Garcia – found the effects of radiation on rats (taste aversion)
Operant Conditioning – consequences that follow a behavior will increase/decrease likelihood of them
happening again
Skinner – founder of operant conditioning & Skinner box
Shaping – procedure in which reinforces guide behavior through successful approximations
Positive Reinforcement – add good – reinforcing behavior by rewarding, give allowance
Negative Reinforcement – take away bad – reinforcing behavior by eliminating averse thing
Positive Punishment – add bad – reinforcing behavior by adding pain/penalty/etc.
Negative Punishment – take away good – reinforcing behavior by take away phone/keys/etc.
Primary Reinforces – stimuli that is satisfying and requires no learning, food/water/sex
Secondary Reinforces – stimuli that has acquired its reinforcing power thru experiences money, praise,
grades
Reinforcement schedules
Continuous – reinforce behavior every time it happens
Variable Ratio – random number of responses. slot machine
Fixed Ratio – after a set number of responses. buy one get one free
Variable Interval – after a random amount of time. fishing
Fixed Interval – after a set rate of time. pay check every 2 weeks
Bandura’s Social Learning Theory – learn through watching
BOBO doll – after see a parent aggressive, child more likely aggressive – TV violence
Flashbulb Memory – a clear memory of an emotionally significant event: 911, JFK
Encoding – changing the info into storable content
Storage – placing info into a storage spot for use later
Retrieval – getting the info out of storage
Ebbinghaus (the effing guy and his effing curve) - the more time we spend of learning info, the linger
we remember it (distributed practice)
Serial Position effect – tendency to recall the first and last items of a list
Primary effect – tendency to recall the first terms of list
Recency effect – tendency to recall the last terms of list
Mnemonic Devices – ways of remembering info by using creative memory techniques
Chunking – putting many number into parts, change 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 to 123, 465, 789 (made 9 things
into 3 = easier to remember)
Sensory Memory – the immediate, very brief recording of sensory info
Iconic – visual info/memory
Echoic – auditory info/memory
STM (short term memory) – temporary memory storage
LTM (long term memory) – an almost endless amount of storage ability
Implicit memory – memory of the procedure – how to ride a bike
Explicit memory – memory of facts – George Washington is first president
Anterograde Amnesia – inability to make new memories, can remember old ones b4
Retrograde Amnesia – inability to remember memories prior to accident
Source Amnesia – inability to remember who told you memory
Infantile Amnesia – inability to remember anything before age of 3
Recall – retrieval of info already learned – fill in the blank test
Recognition – identify info already learned – multiple choice
Proactive interference – old info interfere w/ new info
Retroactive interference – new info interfere w/ old info
Repression – pushing a memory to the back of mind – cannot be retrieved
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs – physiological needs (food, water) → safety needs (security, shelter) →
belongingness needs (friends, family, community) → esteem needs (achievement, flattery for mastery)
→self actualization!!!!
Self-actualization – the motivation to achieve one’s full potential
Sexual response cycle – by Masters and Johnson – Excitement. Plateau. Orgasm.
Resolution
Refractory Period – the resting period after an orgasm in which one cannot be achieved
Homeostasis – a tendency to maintain a balanced or constant internal state; the regulation of any
aspects of body chemistry
Stress – the process by which we respond to certain events that we appraise as threatening or
challenging
GAS – General Adaption Syndrome – made by Hans Selye responses to stress – alarm, resistance,
exhaustion (very vulnerable to disease)
Intrinsic motivation – desire to perform behavior for own sake
Extrinsic motivation – desire to perform behavior for reward at end
Bulimia – eating a large amount of food and then purging (barf) it up
Anorexia – not eating food at all (starving)
Obesity – overeating and gaining excessive amount of weight
Drive reduction Theory – physiological need creates an aroused tension states (drive) that motivates an
organism to satisfy that need
James-Lange Theory – experience of emotion is our awareness of our physiological response to
emotionally arousing stimuli (stimuli then response then emote)
Cannon-Bard Theory – emotionally arousing stimuli simultaneously trigger both a physiological
response and emotion (stimuli then response and emote)
Schacter & Singer / 2 Factor Theory – emotion must be physically aroused and cognitively labeled
before emotion (stimuli then response and label then emote)
Consciousness – our awareness of ourselves and our environment
Conscious level – the info about yourself and your environment. What you are currently aware of
Nonconscious level – body processes controlled by your mind that we are not aware of (heartbeat,
respiration, and digestion)
Preconscious level – info about yourself and environment that you are currently not thinking about
Subconscious level – info that we are not completely aware of but we know exists due to our behaviors
Unconscious level – reservoir of mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings, and memories in which
we are ashamed of, that why we repressed them their
Sleep
Sleep cycle
Nightmare – a scary dream that wakes up the child
Night terror – a high-arousal dream that terrifies a child due to the fact that it occurs in
Stage four sleep, your most relaxed state
Insomnia – reoccurring difficulties either falling asleep or staying asleep
Narcolepsy – uncontrollable sleep attacks, person randomly collapses into REM sleep
Sleep apnea – temporary cessations of breathing during sleep
Somnambulism – sleep walking
Dreams – “the highway to the unconscious”, sequence of images, emotions, and thoughts passing
through a sleeping person’s mind
Manifest Content – the story line of the dream
Latent Content – the underlying meaning of the dream
Hypnosis – a social interaction in which one person (the hypnotist) SUGGESTS to another person (the
subject) that certain perceptions, feelings, thoughts, or behaviors will spontaneously occur
Agonists – excite, by causing neurotransmitters to hit site multiple times
Antagonists – inhibits, by blocking neurotransmitters
Tolerance – the diminishing effects with regular use of the same dose of a drug
Withdrawal – the discomfort and distress that follows discontinuing the use of an addictive drug, usually
cause a person to go back on drug
Stimulants – drugs that excite neural activity and speed up body functions
Depressants – drug that reduce neural activity and slow body functions
Alcohol – a depressant ALWAYS, no matter the amount taken (will be on AP test!)
Hallucinogens – psychedelic drug that distorts perceptions and evoke sensory images in the absence of
a sensory input
Opiates – opium and its derivatives, the depress neural activity, temporarily lessening pain and anxiety
Temperament – a person’s characteristic emotional reactivity and intensity
Heritability – the proportion of variation among individual that can attribute to genes
Culture – the enduring behaviors, ideas, values, attitudes, and traditions shared by a group
Norm – an understood rule for accepted and expected behavior
Individualism – giving priority to one’s own goals over group goals and defining one’s identity in terms
of personal attributes rather than group identification
Collectivism – giving priority to the goals of one’s goals and defining personal id as so
Spearman – proposed that general intelligence is linked to many clusters that can be analyzed by factor
analysis (he made up factor analysis)
Factor analysis – a statistical procedure that identifies clusters on related items on a test
Gardner – wanted to broaden definition of intelligence, created 8 types of intelligence
(Logical-Mathematical, Linguistic, Musical, Spatial, body-kinesthetic, intrapersonal
(self), interpersonal (others), and naturalist)
Sternberg – created his three types of intelligences (analytical, creative, and practical)
Binet – published first useful test of general mental ability; broke kids up into ‘bright’ and ‘dull’ by how
they compared with both their chronological age and mental age
Terman – made Binet’s test Americanized
Wechsler – WAIS – study personal strengths and weaknesses in 11 different subjects
IQ formula – Mental age/Chronological age x 100
Achievement Test – designed to determine what an individual has learned
Aptitude Test – designed to predict one’s capacity to learn in the future
Divergent thinking – test has multiple possible answers (words that begin with s)
Convergent thinking – test only has one correct answer (2+2=?)
Nature v Nurture – the debate of weather you are shaped by your environment or genes
FAS (fetal alcohol syndrome) – physical and cognitive abnormalities in children caused by a pregnant
women’s heavy drinking
Newborn reflexes
 Rooting Reflex – when touched on the cheek, a baby will turn its head and seek a nipple
 Moro Reflex – when startled, baby flings limbs out and slowly retract them
 Babinski Reflex – when a baby’s foot is stroked, he/she will spread their toes
 Sucking Reflex – when an object is placed into baby’s mouth, the infant will suck on it
 Grasping Reflex – if an object is placed into baby’s balm, the baby will try to grasp it
Crystallized intelligence – one’s accumulated knowledge & verbal skill, increase with age
Fluid intelligence – one’s ability to reason speedily & abstractly, decrease with age
Harry Harlow – created the Harlow monkey experiment, raise baby monkey’s w/ a wire mother and
bottle vs. a terry cloth mother, most monkey’s liked the comfort rather than the food and necessary
needs provided by the other mother
Mary Ainsworth – studied how different attachment styles affected kids
Secure attachment – confidently explore the novel environment while parents are present, are
distressed when they leave, and come to parents when they return
Avoidant attachment – may resist being held by parent and will explore the novel environment. They do
not go to parent for comfort when they return after absence
Anxious attachment – have ambivalent reactions to parents. They may show extreme stress when
parents leave, but upon return resist being comforted by parent
Authoritarian – set strict standard & apply punishment for violations of rules (hard bed)
Permissive – do not set clear guidelines for kids & randomly enforce rules (soft bed)
Authoritative – have set standards, but able to explain them with kids when broken, encourage
independence, but not too strict on punishments (just right bed)
Erik Erikson
 Trust v Mistrust – birth to one year, infancy – if needs are dependably met, infants develop a
sense of basic trust
 Autonomy v shame/doubt – age 1 to age 2, toddlerhood – learn to exercise will and do things
for themselves, or they doubt their abilities
 Initiative v guilt – age 3 to 5, preschooler – learn to initiate tasks and carry out plans, or they
feel guilty about efforts to be independent
 Industry v inferiority – age 6 to puberty, elementary school – learn the pleasures of applying
themselves to tasks, or they fell inferior
 Identity v role confusion – teen years to early 20s, adolescence – work at refining a sense of self
by testing roles and then integrating them to form a single identity, or they become confused
about who they are
 Intimacy v isolation – 20s to early 40s, young adulthood – struggle to form close relationships
and to gain the capacity for intimate love, or they feel isolated
 Generativity v stagnation – 40s to 60s, middle adulthood – people discover a sense of
contributing to the world, usually through family and work, or they feel a lack of purpose for
their life
 Integrity v despair – late 60s to death, late adulthood – when reflecting on their life, the older
adult may feel a sense of satisfaction or failure
Jean Piaget
 Sensorimotor – birth to 2 years of age, experience world through senses and actions, learn
object permanence and stranger anxiety
 Preoperational – 2 to 6 years of age, representing things with words rather than images, use
intuitive rather than logical thinking, very egocentric (only see from own view)
 Concrete operational – from ages 7 to 11, think logically about concrete events, grasp concrete
analogies and performing arithmetical operations, learn conservation
 Formal operational – from age 12 through adulthood, they begin to think abstractly, they
understand abstract logic and potential for mature moral reasoning
Kohlberg
 Preconventional – obey in order to avoid punishment or get reward
o in the case of stealing medicine in order to save the life of your wife, someone with this
morality would say … no, I don’t want to get in trouble
 Conventional – care for others and uphold laws and social rules simply b/c they are laws
o no, it is illegal to steal and I don’t want to break a law
 Postconventional – affirm people’s agreed-upon rights or follow what one personally perceives
as correct or ethically ok
o yes, my wife needs it and a whole life is must more worth the $50 the medicine costs, in
truth, I would be doing what anyone would do
Freud Psychosexual stages
 Oral – infant seeks pleasure through their mouths
 Anal – toilet training, pleasure in controlling body
 Phallic – realize their gender, love mother, hate father
 Latency – repress sexual urges to work w/ everyone
 Genital – pleasure in genitals and sex, last for rest of life
Oedipus complex – boys fears father will castrate them b/c of their love for mom
Electra complex – same as Oedipus, but with girl’s fear of mother
Fixation – if a problem occurs in one stage, similar problems may come up later in life,
i.e. . Smoking is an oral fixation, due to a lack of pleasure in oral stage
Representative Heuristics – judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they seem to
represent/match particular prototype, i.e. . a short, slim, poetry reading man is an ivy league professor,
not a truck drive (don’t think of the many truck drivers compared to the small number of ivy league
professors)
Available Heuristics – estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory, i.e. after
a horrible house fire, a person will think that a house fire is more common than a tornado hitting house,
even if they live in tornado valley, b/c they can still remember they house fire
Functional Fixedness – the inability to see the different uses of an object, i.e. . a paper clip’s only use is
to clip papers (don’t think about making it into a hook, etc.)
Noam Chomsky – the best time to learn a language is during childhood, kids are sponges and able to
absorb the language better than in high school (and yet, when do we learn language? High school, make
any sense to you???)
Benjamin Whorf – linguistic determination – language determines the way we think
Language acquisition
 Babbling Stage – the stage of speech development in which an infant utters various sounds at
first unrelated to the house hold language
 One-word Stage – the stage of speech development during which a child speaks mostly in single
words, from age 1 to 2
 Two-word Stage – beginning at age 2, child speaks mostly in two word statements
 Telegraphic Stage – early speech stage in which a child speaks like a telegram (go car) using
mostly nouns and verbs, omitting auxiliary words
Personality – an individual’s characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting
 Type A – hard-driving, aggressive, anger-prone people (get more heart problems)
 Type B – easygoing, relaxed people
Free association – unscripted, uncensored talking, which is supposed to provide clues to the
unconscious parts of the mind
Id – contains a reservoir of unconscious psychic energy that strives for basic sexual and aggressive
drives, immediate gratification (devil)
 Pleasure principle – id operated on this – strive for pleasure, at all costs
Ego – the largely conscious, executive part of personality that mediates between the demands of the id,
superego, and reality
 Reality principle – ego operates on this – u can’t always get what u want, realistically
Superego – the part of the personality that represents internalized ideals and provides standards for
judgments and for future aspirations (angel)
Defense Mechanisms – ego’s productive method of reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality
 Repression – pushing bad thoughts to back of mind, forgetting (Oh, I forgot)
 Denial – refusing to accept reality, so say it didn’t really happen (I did get accepted)
 Displacement – taking you anger out on someone else (man/wife/boss)
 Projection – pushing your own feelings on to someone else (you look tired)
 Reaction Formation – showing the opposite feeling you have (I hate you)
 Regression – going back to an earlier stage of development (temper tantrum)
 Rationalization – giving false reasons why you did what you did (well, I was very tired)
 Sublimation – putting bad urges into acceptable social ways (boxing/football)
Penis Envy (Freud) – a women’s want for the man’s power (not necessary the actual body part)
Horney – Neo-Freudian feminist
 Womb Envy – a man’s want to be able to reproduce
Humanism – all humans are basically good and have free will
Rogers – people are genuine, accepting, and empathic
Self-concept – all our thoughts are feelings about ourselves in answer to the question,
“Who am I?” We strive to form a positive one. They difference between a real self and ideal self will
form your self-concept
Real self – who you really are, in terms of personality
Ideal self – who you want to be, your perfect version
Unconditional Positive Regard – an attitude of total acceptance towards another person
Trait Theory – study, define, and track one’s traits over their life time, they don’t care about the why,
just what they are
Trait – a characteristic pattern of behavior or a disposition to feel or act, as assessed by self-reporting
inventories and peer reports
THE BIG FIVE PERSONALITY TRAITS:
 Conscientiousness – Organized, carful, and disciplined
 Agreeableness – Soft-hearted, trusting, and helpful
 Neuroticism (emotional. stability) – Calm, secure, and self-satisfied
 Openness – Imaginative, preference for variety, and independent
 Extraversion – Sociable, fun-loving, and affectionate
Projective Tests – are personality tests that provide ambiguous stimuli designed to trigger projections of
one’s inner dynamics
Rorschach Inkblot – most widely used projective test, series of ten inkblots, participant looks at inkblot
and says what he sees
TAT – participant is given a picture and they must make up a story about the picture
MMPI – the most widely researched and clinically used of all personality tests.
Originally developed to identity emotional disorders, this test is now used for many other screening
purposes
Internal Locus of Control – the perception that one can control their own faith
External Locus of Control – the perception that one’s fate is controlled by an outside force and that they
have no control over it
Carl Jung – unconscious is really powerful, but contains more that bad thoughts, etc.
 Collective Unconscious – Jung’s concept of a shared, inherited reservoir of memory traces from
our species’ history
Neo-Freudian – followers of Freud who broke of due to his emphasis on childhood memories and
sexually and aggressive urges
Self-efficacy – how capable we think we are in controlling event, determined by previous events,
comparisons w/ others abilities, listening what others say about our capabilities, and feedback from
body
Learned Helplessness – when unable to avoid repeated adverse events, the person/animal feels
helpless and will not try any more to avoid/escape
Inferiority Complex – the avoiding of feelings of inadequacy and insignificance
Spotlight Effect – the tendency to overestimate others’ noticing and evaluating our appearances,
performances, and blunders
Self-serving Bias – a readiness to perceive oneself favorably
You should also know about the following in chapters 12 & 13
- Difference between obsessions and compulsions
- Bipolar disorder
- DSM-IV
- Agoraphobia
- Difference between Anxiety, Mood, and Personality Disorders or there will probably be a question or
two saying, so and so has these symptoms, what is there disorder
- Schizophrenia!!! – Symptoms, types (paranoid, cationic, etc.), and factors
- Just have a basic understanding of the terms for therapy, there will be about 3 questions asking which
type it is, think smart. If the question says, “James suffers from Parkinson’s diseases, as a treatment, his
doctor prescribed medicine to increase the amount of dopamine secreted by the brain, what type of
therapy is this?” What perspective deals with chemical imbalances in the brain. Cognitive, therefore, the
correct answer will probably be along the lines of cognitive therapy